What do you think?
Rate this book
Armchair Explorer
Calling culture lovers: sample music, films and books from 120 countries without leaving your armchair. Perfect preparation for travellers or simply a satisfying journey into the unknown, this book lists the five most interesting books and movies from each country, plus its top ten tunes. Be introduced to American jazz, French new wave cinema, Irish poetry and more. Discover a little of each countries’ life and soul through each recommendation by Lonely Planet’s experts.
In-depth double page spread features examine iconic genres, artists and movements from a variety of countries:
Belgium: Tintin
England: The Beatles
France: New Wave Cinema
Germany: Love Parade
Portugal: Fado
Republic of Ireland: James Joyce
Cuba: Cuban Son
Mexico: New Mexican Cinema
USA: Jazz
New Zealand: Maori Renaissance
Japan: Anime
South Korea: K-Pop
With coverage of countries that range from Argentina to Zimbabwe, this hardcover book is suited to travellers and culture enthusiasts, or as a great gift to a loved one to inspire them to dream of their next journey.
About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and phrasebooks for 120 languages, and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, videos, 14 languages, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more, enabling you to explore every day.
'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' – New York Times
'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' – Fairfax Media (Australia)
In-depth double page spread features examine iconic genres, artists and movements from a variety of countries:
Belgium: Tintin
England: The Beatles
France: New Wave Cinema
Germany: Love Parade
Portugal: Fado
Republic of Ireland: James Joyce
Cuba: Cuban Son
Mexico: New Mexican Cinema
USA: Jazz
New Zealand: Maori Renaissance
Japan: Anime
South Korea: K-Pop
With coverage of countries that range from Argentina to Zimbabwe, this hardcover book is suited to travellers and culture enthusiasts, or as a great gift to a loved one to inspire them to dream of their next journey.
About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and phrasebooks for 120 languages, and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, videos, 14 languages, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more, enabling you to explore every day.
'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' – New York Times
'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' – Fairfax Media (Australia)
288 pages, Hardcover
Published September 14, 2021
4 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Lonely Planet
3,676 books885 followersOUR STORY
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 31, 2023
This interesting and subjective book produced by Lonely Planet was most interesting. The book is divided by Continents and then within each Continent, countries are showcased alphabetically. For each country, there is a Read List of 5 books, a Watch List of 5 Movies, a color photograph of a person, place, or symbol that is / was influential to that country and / or its history, and a Playlist of 10 songs that cover different categories of music. Occasionally, there is a 2-page spread that follows a country's information that looks at a topic a bit deeper. For instance, with the United States, the In-Depth topic is about Jazz.
Still, as I said, this book is subjective. While Lonely Planet chose a lot of great books, movies, and songs, to include for each country, there are areas where I might have chosen differently.
Still, as I said, this book is subjective. While Lonely Planet chose a lot of great books, movies, and songs, to include for each country, there are areas where I might have chosen differently.
September 3, 2021
This is a fabulous book that will appeal to lovers of music, film and literature. This book is broken down into continents, and then each country is listed alphabetically.
This book is brilliant for me. As a book reader, I often look for books from around the world. Listing 5 bokos from the classics to more modern titles gives me a good introduction to the literature of each country. Along with this I can then explore further and look for films and also check out the playlists for music.
There is also a photo for each country, not necessarily a photo of a capital city or a scenic view either. There are a few countries that do have an "In-Depth" page, where there is a little more information about a person or group that has been influential in some way.
This is a great book for either flicking through or sitting and reading through. It is a very well laid out reference book that is also very interesting.
I do think this is a really good book and the hardback version is really nice. It is a book I would definitely recommend.
This book is brilliant for me. As a book reader, I often look for books from around the world. Listing 5 bokos from the classics to more modern titles gives me a good introduction to the literature of each country. Along with this I can then explore further and look for films and also check out the playlists for music.
There is also a photo for each country, not necessarily a photo of a capital city or a scenic view either. There are a few countries that do have an "In-Depth" page, where there is a little more information about a person or group that has been influential in some way.
This is a great book for either flicking through or sitting and reading through. It is a very well laid out reference book that is also very interesting.
I do think this is a really good book and the hardback version is really nice. It is a book I would definitely recommend.
January 5, 2022
Quote:
“Books, whether carried as creased paperbacks or stored in an app, are windows into worlds.
But you don’t have to pack a suitcase to read, listen and view the books, music and movies from other countries: you can do it from the comfort of your own armchair. And it’s a great way of researching a country before you go or simply enjoying one of the finest qualities of travel - gaining an understanding of a faraway place and it’s people and being enriched by their creative expression- from home.”
“Books, whether carried as creased paperbacks or stored in an app, are windows into worlds.
But you don’t have to pack a suitcase to read, listen and view the books, music and movies from other countries: you can do it from the comfort of your own armchair. And it’s a great way of researching a country before you go or simply enjoying one of the finest qualities of travel - gaining an understanding of a faraway place and it’s people and being enriched by their creative expression- from home.”
December 19, 2022
Good advice for traveling by armchair with lists for reading books - new and old, music lists along with film lists. But you must have lots of free time to do all of this immersion. I was surprised by how much I had already but also how little that I had read. I saw some of the films but missed many others so Mach info so little time.
December 23, 2021
Recommend books, movies and music from around the world!
November 7, 2022
Loved the music recommendations!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews